Thursday, September 03, 2009
Baby
Well, the least that can be said about that is that it wasn't what I was expecting.
What I was expecting was the nice easy planned home birth I'd erm, planned.
What I got (serves me right for presuming), was an emergency C section in the middle of the night on Thursday the 27th, 10 days after due date, followed/ alongside infections for both due to prolonged rupture of membranes. Which to the lay person means waters went first thing on Sunday morning, I thought I'd go into labour very quickly and have the baby by Sunday evening.
Nothing happened and nothing happened.
So I went in for monitoring on Monday afternoon, declined the rather forcefully proffered induction, opted to return on Tuesday afternoon for more monitoring and instead spent the night in floods of tears convinced the baby was going to die.
So on Tuesday morning, I shelved my home birth plans and headed into the hospital for induction. Thank god, as it turns out.
Induction number 1 (by hormone pessary) failed. Wednesday afternoon and they switched to the drip method of induction. By which time I was feverish and the baby's heartrate had accelerated to about 40 beats per minute above where it had been. Both of these indicate infection.
And the drip was inducing nothing more than twinges. And baby stopped responding to even the strongest twinges. So they turned the drip down to avoid stressing the baby, and I had an overwhelming urge to lie down and go to sleep, and suddenly all hell broke loose.
The baby's heart rate dropped like a stone, having been erratic for a few minutes, and suddenly the room was full of trembling midwives struggling with monitor transducers, calm but anxious obstetrician urging an instant C section, and an anaesthetist, all brandishing consent forms and information.
I went for a general anaesthetic on the grounds that I didn't want to know straight away if the outcome was going to be disastrous, and I honestly did not want to wait for a spinal to take effect.
The problem, it turned out, was quite simply that the baby has spent the last few weeks rolling round and round in the cord, and had it wrapped once around the body and five times around the legs. Bungee jumping off the placenta in effect. Never ever going to exit through nature's intended route...
So she was born, weighing 7lbs 6 oz, not breathing well at birth, and was rushed to NICU where she spent the next five days being treated with very strong antibiotics for a presumed infection. They never found out where the infection was, but she had to have a lumbar puncture while in the nicu, which was negative, so probably not meningitis, thank goodness.
She is lovely, bright and alert, and we got home yesterday afternoon.
The Bug.
What I was expecting was the nice easy planned home birth I'd erm, planned.
What I got (serves me right for presuming), was an emergency C section in the middle of the night on Thursday the 27th, 10 days after due date, followed/ alongside infections for both due to prolonged rupture of membranes. Which to the lay person means waters went first thing on Sunday morning, I thought I'd go into labour very quickly and have the baby by Sunday evening.
Nothing happened and nothing happened.
So I went in for monitoring on Monday afternoon, declined the rather forcefully proffered induction, opted to return on Tuesday afternoon for more monitoring and instead spent the night in floods of tears convinced the baby was going to die.
So on Tuesday morning, I shelved my home birth plans and headed into the hospital for induction. Thank god, as it turns out.
Induction number 1 (by hormone pessary) failed. Wednesday afternoon and they switched to the drip method of induction. By which time I was feverish and the baby's heartrate had accelerated to about 40 beats per minute above where it had been. Both of these indicate infection.
And the drip was inducing nothing more than twinges. And baby stopped responding to even the strongest twinges. So they turned the drip down to avoid stressing the baby, and I had an overwhelming urge to lie down and go to sleep, and suddenly all hell broke loose.
The baby's heart rate dropped like a stone, having been erratic for a few minutes, and suddenly the room was full of trembling midwives struggling with monitor transducers, calm but anxious obstetrician urging an instant C section, and an anaesthetist, all brandishing consent forms and information.
I went for a general anaesthetic on the grounds that I didn't want to know straight away if the outcome was going to be disastrous, and I honestly did not want to wait for a spinal to take effect.
The problem, it turned out, was quite simply that the baby has spent the last few weeks rolling round and round in the cord, and had it wrapped once around the body and five times around the legs. Bungee jumping off the placenta in effect. Never ever going to exit through nature's intended route...
So she was born, weighing 7lbs 6 oz, not breathing well at birth, and was rushed to NICU where she spent the next five days being treated with very strong antibiotics for a presumed infection. They never found out where the infection was, but she had to have a lumbar puncture while in the nicu, which was negative, so probably not meningitis, thank goodness.
She is lovely, bright and alert, and we got home yesterday afternoon.
The Bug.
